In this regard we are looking at IBM's COBOL, PL/I, and C/C++ compilers for System z. The firm uses the words "portability and reliability" to denote their main characteristics and says that they support the latest IBM middleware, CICS, DB2, and IMS.

COBOL, PL/I, and C/C++ compilers provide integrated coprocessor support for CICS and DB2. With this support, embedded CICS and DB2 statements are compiled in a single step.

Enterprise COBOL for z/OS V5.1 was announced April 23, 2013, and became generally available on June 21, 2013. This compiler has apparently been re-architected to include an advanced technology framework for optimizing COBOL applications and exploiting z/Architecture, including latest zEnterprise BC12 (zBC12) hardware.

Painting a welcome analogy, Koo points out that like mileage on cars, performance can be difficult to quantify because it depends on a number of factors — how the application is written, the hardware architecture it runs on, system (i.e., hardware and software) configuration, etc.

"Enterprise COBOL Developer Trial for z/OS V5.1 will enable you to plan and assess the real value that could be gained by your applications from upgrading to Enterprise COBOL V5.1. You can also try out new programming features and determine how to make use of them in your applications," says Koo.

Enterprise COBOL Developer Trial for z/OS V5.1 is identical to Enterprise COBOL for z/OS V5.1. It has the same hardware and software prerequisites as the full product. There are no imposed restrictions in functionality and performance.
The only difference is the trial version can only be used in non-production environments, and code compiled with it cannot be used in production.

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This month's Dr. Dobb's Journal

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